Re Germany, it’s pretty much a clusterfuck all around right now. Reker has since notpologised for her shitty code of conduct idea, saying that she is sincerely sorry if her comments hurt one of the victims…

The whole thing is difficult to unpack, though. Feminism is seen as old-fashioned in Germany, it’s outdated because “this is not the US”, etc. So I think people are surprised at how many women were sexually assaulted in Cologne (and other cities) because it’s not generally in the news.

On top of that the country is having a huge debate about the influx of refugees, and from what I’ve read some (?) of the attackers were Syrian, so now you have racist shitbags copying feminist rhetoric about protecting women, as well as some feminists, mindboggingly, copying racist shitbag rhetoric, including Alice Schwarzer, who is, like, the German feminist. She’s a second-wave icon, but a bit TERFy and really rather terrible on intersectional stuff including religion. So she probably shouldn’t be the go-to feminist on this, but there isn’t really anyone else (see above about old-fashioned feminism, bra-burning 1960s radicals, and so on). She’s a very good self-promoter.

But white German dudes are just as shit at boundaries as USian or whatever dudes, especially when drunk… So the fact this has got as much attention is almost definitely due to a (confirmedish?) racial component. Germany as a whole has huge issues confronting low-key racist attitudes.

On top of that the police are now claiming they were overwhelmed, but I personally find that hard to believe. Cologne isn’t a sleepy village, they have the carnival, football games, Nazi protests and counterprotests, and other large, volatile events they should be used to.